A majority of hi-power AC electrical wiring of residential and commercial structures, as one of important steps in providing completed structure with required power, has fallen drastically behind the progress attained in other areas of construction, such as: wiring for communications, including phone lines, LAN, internet, etc. Based on existing methods of wiring AC electrical power, the installation time, installation quality, reliability, repeatability and end-result safety of installations—depends heavily on hi-skill manual labor. As result, overall quality of each practical installation is at a mercy of an installation crew, which must maintain required: workmanship skills; detailed attention to specifications, including wiring diagrams, which are more complex these days due to demands for larger and sophisticated structures; installation quality at a rather intensive schedule of completion; etc. In addition to problems stated above, the associated costs of electrical power wiring of a structure—is constantly going up, not so much due to better quality of materials, but rather due to increases in labor costs.
While demand for new construction varies, and respective builders could complete them at rather comfortable time schedules, there is a high demand currently in the areas within the U.S.A. affected by devastating flooding and fires. These re-building projects, which should be completed as soon as possible, could not afford, for example, extra expenses associated with paying high rates for expediting installations of electrical power.
While the costs of building materials in general went up significantly, and while the buildings themselves have appreciated substantially, the existing electrical components and technology used for wiring electrical power has remained disproportionably behind. The existing technology is utilizing primarily individual wires, not cables, and as result, it would be rather challenging to reduce electromagnetic interferences produced by power devices and propagated along these wires, which could: present health risks to individuals near by; and impact operating environment for other devices.
The existing technology places a burden on an installer to implement a required load switching scheme. Some of the switching schemes could be rather complicated, and as result, have a higher risk of mistake made by installer, which may not be discovered by installation inspector, and those impacting the quality and safety of an installation.
In addition, a majority of electrical and electro-mechanical equipment, including machinery and stand alone devices, require adequate means for connecting to required electrical power sources. For simplicity, the applicable equipment in this application will be referred as device.
There are a number of applications, where electrical power to devices is provided via interface modules, including ones that resemble a standard power strip. There is a range of equipment, such as ATM machines, Vending machines, and Process machines in general, etc., that could be considered a main device, which could incorporate other secondary devices within them, such as: display monitor, printer, etc., which also require electrical power applied to them.
The existing power entry methods, although being adequate in electrical power ratings, are not conveniently packaged to provide cost-efficient power entry from outside power source to the main device and then power distribution within the main device to secondary devices. Simply put, there is no off-the-shelf solution, which would conveniently interface a main device to a power source, and then provide convenient power distribution within the main device to other secondary devices.
As a result, designers of main devices have little choice, but to employ a number of off-the-shelf individual components, such as: power inlet, power protection, etc. interfaced via custom wiring, packaged in custom housings, etc., which potentially could create unnecessary challenges in meeting respective safety agency requirements, such as UL, and others. In addition, any “in-house” custom wiring of power components within or outside a device, due to possible lack of solid quality control procedures, which, in contrast, are enforced on off-the-shelf components, could represent a potential safety hazard for individuals responsible for device operation and maintenance.
The existing power entry and distribution methods for a number of devices do not provide convenient power monitoring and diagnostics to ensure the respective device(s) performance has not degraded below projected levels, which if not noticed and then timely attended to by conducting required maintenance, etc., could costs the user of the device in terms of: higher energy costs, potential loss of a device, etc.
The existing power entry and distribution methods do not provide a cost efficient solution to the growing demands for devices aimed at automating a number of businesses, such as: grocery, retails, etc.